Note 244 — Chapter IX · THIRTEENTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES.

By the word apostema, Guy de Chauliac, and many other writers, indicate every pathological condition in which the normal elements of the tissues are separated from one another, by a humorous or gaseous gathering, or by any phlogistic or neoplastic formation. The word signifies, in Greek, removal, just like the Latin word abscessus. In fact, these two terms were often used as synonyms; but at other times the word apostema had a wider meaning, and included, besides the abscess, the phlegmon, the furunculus, the anthrax, erysipelas, herpes, and other dermal affections, especially the pustulous ones, edema and other serous gatherings, subcutaneous emphysema and other gaseous gatherings, glandular tumefactions, cysts, benignant and malignant tumors.